KOREAN 101

Learn how to read and write

Korean in a single day
 BUSTER MOON
YOUR KOREAN TEACHER

Hi! I'm Sean a.k.a Buster Moon! Sean was born in Seoul, South
I'm a Korean teacher and content Korea and moved to Canada
creator. I truly enjoy studying Korean when he was 16 years old.
with my students. The purpose of Now he is living in Vancouver
making this e-book is to help more Canada!
students like YOU to learn Korean in a
more simple and fun way! After
studying this learning material, you will DID YOU KNOW?
be able to read and write Hangul,
Sean is a language fanatic!
Korean alphabets, and will no longer
He knows how to speak not
need to rely on romanization. I
only Korean and English but
certainly believe that it's going to be
also Chinese as well as some
a fun and exciting learning process for
Italian, Spanish and
you. Are you ready? Let's go crush
Japanese!
Korean Hangul right now!
WHAT YOU WILL
LEARN IN THIS BOOK
OUR PLAN TODAY'S GOAL
HISTORY OF HANGUL Learn Korean consonants,
vowels and their corresponding
HANGUL CHART sounds to properly read and
write Korean characters!
KOREAN SYLLABLE Practice enunciating every
consonant and vowel
LETTER PLACEMENT
Learn linkage rule to read
ORDER OF READING words more naturally
Memorize how to write
BASIC CONSONANTS consonants and vowels
Learn where to place
DOUBLE CONSONANTS consonants and vowels

MYSTERIOUS ㅇ ㄹ
AND
Practice enunciating
example Korean words
FINAL CONSONANTS

LINKING SOUNDS

MEMORIZING HANGUL LESSON MOTTO

BASIC VOWELS

4 DIFFICULT BASIC VOWELS

"난 할 수 있다!"
"I can do it!"
COMPOUND VOWELS

STROKE ORDER

WRITING PRACTICE

EXAMPLE WORDS
History of Hangul
"A smart person can learn
it in half a day and even a
fool can learn it in a week"

Korean writing system including the letters is an invention

solely by King Sejong the Great in 1443. He profoundly affected
Korean history with his personal creation and introduction of
hangul, the native phonetic writing system for the Korean
language.
Before it was published in 1446, people in Korea (known as
Joseon dynasty at the time) primarily wrote using Chinese
letters. However, the lower class people who didn't have the
privilege of education had difficulty in learning how to write
using Chinese characters. To resolve this problem, King Sejong
created the unique alphabet known as Hangul to promote
literacy among the common people. His intention was to
establish a cultural identity for Korea through its unique script.
Today, the culture of Korea including music, tv shows, movies
and other entertainment is spreading quickly to all over the
world. Without the existence of Hangul, Korean culture would
not have its uniqueness it possesses today.
 Hangul Chart
After studying Hangul. use this chart to test yourself if you have
successfully memorized corresponding sound for each letter.

Consonants

Vowels
Korean syllable

A single letter in Korean does not make a sound. Then how is a

sound made? One complete syllable needs to be formed!

The minimum requirement for a complete syllable is:

1 Consonant & 1 vowel

Below, we have 2 examples of a syllable that meets the
minimum requirement.

1. C + V

C
2. +
v
Letter
= consonant
= vowel

Placement = final consonant

Korean letters cannot appear on their own, instead, they

appear as a part of syllable blocks. These syllable blocks can
be in many different forms but the first letter will ALWAYS be a
ㅇ
consonant. This is why a silent consonant ' ' exists because we
ㅏ
cannot just write a vowel ' ' to say 'AH'. The letter in the second
position will ALWAYS be a vowel. If there is a letter in the final
position, it will also ALWAYS be a consonant.

Here are 9 different forms of Korean characters:

example example example

c c
c v v v
c v c
v
c
v
F F F

c v c c
v
v
F F F F F F
 Order of reading

Read each syllable in this order:

1. Consonant
2. Vowel
3. Final consonant

Example phrase
'I Love you'

SA RANG HAE
 KOREAN
CONSONANT
Korean consonants
Basic consonants

G N D R/L M B S

/NG J CH K T P H

Double consonants

GG DD BB SS JJ
Korean consonants
+ vowel

GA NA DA RA MA BA SA

A JA CHA KA TA PA HA

GGA DDA BBA SSA JJA

Listen & Practice
Scan the QR code to hear the pronunciation

ㄱ
You might think that sounds like K instead of G and you
ㄱ
are not wrong. The consonant makes a sound
ㄱ
somewhere between English G and K, so I often say is a
ㄷㅂ
soft K! Same thing applies to consonants , and .ㅈ
ㄷ
Sound of = somewhere between D and T
ㅂ
Sound of = somewhere between B and P
ㅈ
Sound of = somewhere between J and Ch
It is very important to practice and know how to
differentiate the two similar sounds.
Listen & Practice
Scan the QR code to hear the pronunciation

Double consonants

GGA DDA BBA SSA JJA

There are only 5 consonants that can be doubled which

ㄱㄷㅂㅅ ㅈ
are , , , and . These double consonants are
enunciated with a stress. Scan the QR codes and listen to
the sound and explanation of each double consonant.
Here are some words that have double consonants in
them:
꿈 쌀 또
(dream), (uncooked rice) and (again)

꿈 = GG + U + M = GGUM
쌀 = SS + A + L = SSAL
또 = DD + O = DDO
On the next page, we are going to practice enunciating a
group of similar sounding consonants.
Listen & Practice
Scan the QR code to hear the pronunciation

The consonants in each group may sound almost

identical to some people and that is quite
common! Scan the QR codes, watch the videos
and practice the pronunciation along with me!
 Mysterious
&

This is a very interesting letter because it is a

silent consonant which means it does not make
any sound! But, that is only the case when it
comes at the beginning of a character. When it
comes at the bottom of a character as a final consonant, it makes
an NG sound. Let me show you an example, 안녕 which is "Hi" in
Korean, would be pronounced as:

안 = SILENT + A + N 녕 = N + YEO + NG
안녕 = ANNYEONG

This letter also makes two different sounds like the

the letter above. When it comes at the beginning
of a character, it makes an R sound but it's not the
same as the English R. It is very close to
the sound of Spanish R without rolling your tongue. But, when it
comes at the bottom of a character, it makes an L sound. Let me
show you some examples, 나라 말
which means 'country' and which
means 'horse' would be pronounced as:

나라 = N+A R+A = NARA

말 = M + A + L = MAL
 Final consonant
ㄹ ㅇ
We've learned that and make L and NG sound respectively when they
are placed on the bottom of a character as a final consonant a.k.a 'batchim'.
ㄱ ㅋand would both become K when placed on the bottom but the sound
stops right after you initiate the sound and the same goes with
ㅂ ㅍ
and . The 6 consonants on the bottom row all become T as batchim and
you would also stop the sound after the initiation.

N M L NG

K P

T
 Continued
아
Here is a list of every consonant used as 'batchim' with on top. Listen to
each sound carefully. You will see that you don't really hear K, P and T sound
as the pronunciation stops right before the sound is being enunciated.
 Linking sounds
When there is a batchim followed by a silent consonant, then
the batchim moves to the next character and replaces the
silent consonant. This type of sound is called 'linking sound'.
This rule exists to make it easier to say words and to make it
sound more natural! Let's have a look at some examples
together.

DOK IL DO GIL

독일
On the left, we have a word ' ' which means
ㄱ
Germany in Korean. There is a batchim placed on
도 ㅇ
the bottom of followed by a silent consonant . So,
ㄱ ㅇ
we move the over and it replaces the which then
makes the pronunciation of Germany 도길 [dogil].
Another example

UT EUM U SEUM

웃음
On the left, we have a word ' ' which means smile in Korean.
ㅅ 우 ㅅ
There is a batchim placed on the bottom of . Although has a
T sound, not S sound when placed as a final consonant, we are
ㅇ
ignoring this because it is followed by a silent consonant . So, we
ㅅ ㅇ
move the over and it replaces the which then makes the
pronunciation of smile 우슴 [u-seum].
How to
memorize
Hangul with
visual
learning
technique

The first letter of each English word makes the most relevant
sound as the corresponding Korean consonant. This will help
you associate the consonants to the sounds of English
alphabets you already know and will stay in your brain more
effectively and for a long period time!
 5 Groups of
14 consonants
①ㄱ ㅋ
②ㄴ ㄷ ㅌ ㄹ
③ㅁ ㅂ ㅍ
④ㅅ ㅈ ㅊ
⑤ㅇ ㅎ
ㄱ
ㅋ
Gun

Kill
 Nose ㄴㄷ
ㅌㄹ
Door

Trident

ㄹ
Top
Rattle
snake

Bottom Ladder
 ㅁ
ㅂㅍ𝛑
Mail

Bed

Pi
Stand
-ing
ㅅ
Jogging
ㅈ
Chasing
ㅊ
Silent at top

ㅎ
NG at bottom

Hat
KOREAN
VOWEL
 Korean vowels
Basic vowels

A YA EO YEO I

These five basic vertical vowels, as the name suggests,

are based on a vertical line as you can see. These vertical
vowels always come to the right of the initial consonant.

O YO U YU EU

On the other hand, these five horizontal vowels above are

based on a horizontal line. These horizontal vowels always
come to the bottom of the initial consonant.
Listen & Practice
Scan the QR code to hear the pronunciation
*Pay attention to the shape of my mouth

Basic vowels

A YA EO YEO O

YO U YU EU I
Top 4 vowels people
struggle the most

#1

ㅓ
To properly enunciate the vowel [ ], relax your
mouth as it doesn't require you to use any muscle
around your mouth. Just naturally open your mouth
by dropping your jaw. Pay attention to the shape of

EO my mouth and try your best to replicate the shape.

#2

ㅗ
To properly enunciate the vowel [ ], you have to
make a very little hole using your mouth using your
muscle. This Korean O vowel doesn't make the same
sound as English O. Watch carefully and replicate the

O shape of my mouth.
Top 4 vowels people
struggle the most

#3

ㅜ
To properly enunciate the vowel [ ], you have to
stick your lips forward. When practicing the sound of
this vowel, exaggerate yourself and make your lips as
if you are kissing someone. Pay attention to the

U shape of my mouth and try to replicate the shape.

#4

ㅡ
To properly enunciate the vowel [ ], you have to
stretch your mouth sideways as if you are showing
every teeth to a dentist. When practicing the sound of
this vowel, exaggerate yourself and go very wide left
EU to right. Try to replicate the shape of my mouth.
Compound vowels
These vowels are also called double vowels because they are made
up of two vowels combined together! You can break it down and
ㅗ
enunciate each vowel in order. For example, ㅏ
[oh] and [ah]
together would sound like [ohah] which would be very close to the
ㅘ
sound of [wa] if enunciated together.

*This doesn't apply to the starred compound vowels and you just
need to memorize their pronunciations.

AE WA

YE WI

WO

WAE EUI
Listen & Practice
Scan the QR code to hear the pronunciation
*Pay attention to the shape of my mouth

Compound vowels
 Hangul
stroke order
You will see that the some letters like
ㅅㅈㅊㅎ
, , , look a little different from what
we've seen. It's because some letters look
different when they are typed and when
they are hand-written. Practice on a piece
of paper following the right stroke order. It's
not the end of the world if you don't write it
in the correct way but it will definitely help
you write Korean letters more neatly and
better looking overall!

Consonant stroke order

1 1
 1 1
2
2
3

2
1 1 2
3

3 4

1
1
2
 1
1

2
2 3
3

1 1
2
2 3

1
1
2
2 3
3

4
Vowel stroke order
Basic vowel

1 1
2
2
3

2 3
1
1
2
 1 1 2

2 3

1 1

2 2 3

1
Vowel stroke order
Compound vowel

1 3
2 3
1
2

1 4 3
1 2
2
2
3
 3 3 5

1 1 4

2 2

4 5 3
4
1
1

2 3
2

3 4

1 1

2 2 3
 2

1
 CONSONANT
&
VOWEL
Writing practice
 BASIC CONSONANTS
Write each syllable and say it out loud as you read
 BASIC CONSONANTS
Write each syllable and say it out loud as you read
 BASIC VOWEL
Write each syllable and say it out loud as you read
BASIC CONSONANT & VOWEL
Write each syllable and say it out loud as you read
 Basic vocabulary
Group #1: Words that are made up of an
empty consonant and different basic
vowels

Group #2: Words that are made up of

different basic consonants and vowels
without any final consonants

Group #3: Words that are made up of

different basic consonants, and vowels
with final consonants

Group #4: Words that are made up of

different basic consonants, vowels and
compound vowels

Group #5: Words that have double

consonants
 Group #1
Write each word and say it out loud as you read

Child Two

Cucumber Tooth
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Fox Five

Milk Yo-yo
 Group #2
Write each word and say it out loud as you read

Baseball Dress shoes

Furniture Baby
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Country Meat

Duck Soap
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Grape Barley

Hippo Train
 Group #3
Write each word and say it out loud as you read

Park Lips

Student Factory
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Villain Glasses

Socks Gloves
 Group #4
Write each word and say it out loud as you read

Pig Company

Chair Doctor
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Talk Washing face
Can we just talk?

Snack Ant
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Fruit Tower

Scissors Key
 Group #5
Write each word and say it out loud as you read

Kid Honey bee

Crab Lid
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Strawberry Peanut

Straw Kiss
 Write each word
and say it out loud as you read
Cooked rice Sled

Stew Small note, letter

Example words for each
consonant with sound
Try to enunciate before listening to the pronunciation

Meat g+o g+i Health g+eo+n g+a+ng

= go gi = geon gang

Older sister n+u n+a Next year n+ae n+yeo+n

for male = nu na = nae nyeon
 Answer, d+ae d+a+p Thief d+o d+u+k
Response = dae dap = do duk

Rome r+o m+a Lego r+ae g+o

(Roma) = ro ma = rae go

Mind, m+a +eu+m Eating m+eo+k b+a+ng

Heart = ma eum broadcast = meok bang
 fool b+a b+o method b+a+ng b+eo+p
= ba bo = bang beop

ㅅ
When [ ] meets the vowel
ㅣ
[ ], the sound becomes [SH]

Common s+a+ng sh+i+k Fact s+a sh+i+l

sense = sang shik = sa shil

LINKING SOUND

Milk +u +yu Music +eu+m +a+k

= u yu = eu mak
 Jeju j+ae j+u Magazine j+a+p j+i
island = jae ju = jap ji

Tuna ch+a+m ch+i Relative ch+i+n ch+eo+k

= cham chi = chin cheok

Kiwi k+i +wi Coffee k+eo p+i

= ki wi = keo pi
 Tattoo t+a t+u Typhoon t+ae p+u+ng
= ta tu = tae pung

Waterfall p+o+k p+o Wave p+a d+o

= pok po = pa do

Hiphop h+i+p h+a+p Regret h+u h+wae

= hi pap = hu hwae
 Yo u
d id i t !

Class of Buster Moon

Thank you for studying Korean 101: Hangul Crash Book

I will admit that learning Korean is not going to be as easy as some

people might think. But, at least I hope you had fun learning how to
read and write Korean with this e-book and this will serve as a great
foundation of your journey in learning Korean. I will continue to help
you learn Korean with a lot of interesting and informative content!

Wherever you are, please know that I'm rooting for you always!

Love, Buster Moon